Apparatus for mounting a load

ABSTRACT

A deck ( 10 ) for mounting a load which may be thin and disposable or returnable. The edge ( 11 ) of the deck is adapted (by means of a concave section, for example) so as to engage with shrink or stretch or heat wrap plastic film whereby no plastic film need be wound around the underside of the deck. In this way the plastic film is kept out of contact with, for example, the roller of a roller conveyor.

BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a means for mounting a load.

Conventionally pallets are used to mount a load and enable a forklift truck to engage under the load to lift the load. The forklift truck may be motorised or may be a hand operated forklift truck ie a so called pallet truck. The pallets which are often of wood comprise a top deck and a lower deck spaced from and connected to one another by blocks of wood, the top and lower decks being spaced so as to allow the forks of a forklift truck to enter between the top and lower decks so as to lift the top deck and hence a load mounted on the top deck. Pallets are sometimes made of other materials such as steel.

Pallets when loaded at a factory are then transported bearing the load in trucks to the customer. Once they have been unloaded and the goods removed from the load, the empty pallets have to be returned to the factory. In view of the weight of the pallets, this can be a considerable environmental cost

Substantial number of pallets are required and although they are intended to be returnable, in practice a manufacturer of goods has to provide many pallets and the customer tends to be left with large numbers of pallets which have to be returned to the manufacturer if they can be identified. In practice, retail outlets often collect large numbers of pallets which take up a considerable amount of room and are generally inconvenient.

Another problem is that the loads are commonly held down to the pallets by means of plastic sheeting in the form of shrink wrap sheeting, or stretch wrap sheeting. In the case of shrink wrap sheeting, the sheeting is wound around the pallet and the load and heat is applied to the sheet which shrinks to firmly hold the load down to the pallet. In the case of stretch wrap sheeting, once again, a film of the plastic is passed around the pallet and the load under tension and this holds the load to the pallet.

A problem with the use of plastic sheeting in this way is that if the pallet passes over a roller conveyor system, then the plastic can get caught up in the rollers and this is highly detrimental in that it may require the roller conveyor to be stopped and repaired or cleaned.

The present invention reduces or removes these problems.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides, according to a first aspect, a deck for mounting the load which may be thin and disposable or returnable. In place of the pallet with two spaced decks, a single deck is used and this requires that when the deck and load is to be stored at the factory before dispatch, or is stacked in a truck for transportation, or is stored at its destination (e.g. customer), then suitable racking means must be provided which enables the forks of a forklift truck or other similar means to be able to engage the under surface of the deck to lift it.

In addition, the edge of the deck is adapted so as to engage with shrink or stretch or heat wrap plastic film whereby no plastic film is wound around the underside of the deck. In this way the plastic sheeting is kept out of contact with, for example, the roller of a roller conveyor.

Thus the invention comprises a deck for mounting a load comprising a single layer having edges, each edge of the deck being adapted so as to engage with an edge of shrink or stretch or heat wrap plastic film whereby no plastic film is wound around the underside of the deck.

Preferably each edge of the deck may be provided in the form of a groove which may be in the form of a concave channel or V shaped channel, and in a preferred arrangement the channel may include teeth means to engage with the plastic sheet. The channels may include means to prevent channels of adjacent decks from engaging with one another which would otherwise cause problems in lifting one deck at a time.

It will also be understood that by replacing the pallet with a single deck, the weight and indeed volume of the decks to be returned from the retailer to the manufacturer is considerably reduced.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Preferred embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of example and with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:—

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a deck according to the invention,

FIG. 2 is a perspective side view of part of the deck of FIG. 1,

FIG. 3 is a part cross section of the edge of the deck of FIG. 1,

FIG. 4 is a view of racking on which decks of the type shown in FIGS. 1 to 3 may be stacked with loads stacked thereon,

FIG. 5 shows the racking of FIG. 4 with a deck and load mounted thereon,

FIG. 6 shows a side view of a truck for transportation of the load to its destination adapted to mount decks of the type shown in FIG. 1, with loads thereon,

FIG. 7 shows a perspective detail of a second, alternative deck with a deeper concave section without teeth,

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a third, alternative, deck according to the invention,

FIG. 9 is a perspective side view of part of the deck of FIG. 8, and

FIG. 10 is a part cross section of the edge of the deck of FIG. 8.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring to FIG. 1 there will be seen a deck 10 comprising a rectangular sheet. The deck 10 may preferably be of a plastic material and is preferably of injection moulded plastic. The plastic material is selected for the use envisaged and may be high density polyethylene or polypropylene. It may however be of other material such as wood or plywood.

The deck may have dimensions appropriate to its use which is typically 1200 mm×1000 mm and of a thickness of 45 mm in the UK, typically 1200 mm×800 mm and of a thickness of 45 mm in Europe, typically 1220 mm×1016 mm and of a thickness of 45 mm in the US and typically 1100 mm×1100 mm and of a thickness of 45 mm in Japan. The thickness may vary depending on the load to be mounted on the deck.

FIG. 2 shows a perspective side view of part of the deck 10 and as can be seen each edge 11 of deck 10 has a channel in the form of a concave section 12. However other cross section channels are envisaged including V section channels. The concave section 12 may extend from adjacent an upper surface 13 to adjacent a lower surface 14 of the deck 10. In the illustrated arrangement the concave section 12 does not extend completely to the upper and lower surfaces 13 and 14 but is spaced therefrom to retain an upper and lower lip 16, 17 respectively between the concave section 12 and the upper and lower surfaces. The depth and the cross section of the lips 16, 17 may be chosen for the particular circumstance. The cross section of the lips may be convexly curved.

The arrangement shown in FIG. 2 is a preferred arrangement since it is symmetrical about its middle plane and thus can be used either way up. If however there is to be a preselected upper and lower surface of the deck then the deck may be able to be non symmetrical about its middle plane and only an upper lip may be provided, the concave section 12 running into the lower surface, so that the external dimensions of the lower surface 14 may be less than those of the upper surface 13.

In a preferred arrangement, the surface of the concave section 12 includes studs or teeth 18, the studs or teeth 18 being provided in two rows running parallel to and adjacent the upper surface 13 and lower surface 14.

FIG. 3 shows a cross section through the edge 11 of the deck 10, shows the shape and formation of the concave section 12, and of the studs or teeth 18 in more detail. It will be noted that the studs or teeth have a generally smooth but sharp shape.

FIG. 6 shows an alternative section of concave section 12 which is much deeper than that of FIGS. 2 and 3 and without teeth 18.

The deck 10 shown in FIGS. 1 to 3 may be used with the staging 19 as illustrated in FIG. 4. The staging comprises two upright frames 21, 22 spaced apart from one another and joined by a lower frame 23. The lower frame 23 is horizontal and comprises two frame members 26, 27 which extend between the upright frames 21, 22. Extended between the frame members 26, 27 are horizontal bars 28 which are spaced from one another. As shown in FIG. 5, the deck 10 may be mounted on the bars 28, the bars 28 spacing the deck 10 from the lower frame members 26, 27.

FIG. 5 shows a load 29 mounted on the deck 10 and as is clear, the load is generally of overall width and length similar to that of the deck 10. As is well known, loads are commonly connected to pallets, or in this case the deck 10, by means of shrink wrap plastic sheeting or stretch wrap plastic sheeting 30.

Shrink wrap plastic film is a material usually of polymer plastic film. When heat is applied to the shrink wrap plastic film material, it shrinks tightly over what ever it is covering. Shrink wrap plastic film is commonly used to over wrap many types of packaging. The most commonly used shrink wrap is polyolefin. Other shrink films include PVC.

Stretch wrap or stretch film is a highly stretchable plastic film that is wrapped around items under tension. The elastic recovery property inherent in the material keeps the items tightly bound. The most commonly used stretch wrap material are linear low density polyethylene or LLDPE. Many films have about 500% stretch at break but are usually only stretched to about 100-300% in use. Once stretched the elastic recovery is used to keep the load tight.

In use, to hold the load to the deck, a roll of stretch wrap film is held with its axis vertical, and with the lower edge 31 of the film 30 adjacent the edge of the deck. The roll is then moved around the load under tension to stretch the film and in that way the lower edge of the stretch wrap film engages with the edge of the deck 10 and, in particular, engages in the concave section 12. As shown in FIG. 3, the stretch wrap film 30 engages with the uppermost row of teeth 18.

In the case of using shrink wrap plastic film, the plastic film may be applied from a vertical roll with its lower edge 31 engaging in the concave section 12 of the deck and the shrink wrap film is then shrunk by the application of heat, either through a hand held blower or alternatively by passing the deck and load through a heated tunnel.

In this way it is possible to securely attach the load to the deck 10 without any of the shrink or stretch wrap film extending below the deck 10 where it might engage with rollers on a conveyor roller if the deck 10 and load are moved along such a conveyor roller. The concave section 12 and the teeth securely engage the lower edge of the plastic film and keep the film away from the lower surface of the deck.

The teeth 18 are arranged to be of a shape which engages the plastic film securely without tearing it. Thus the height of the teeth should be chosen to aid engagement with the film and the shape and smoothness of the tip of each tooth should be chosen so as not to tear the plastic film.

The arrangement of FIG. 6, because of the greater depth of the concave section might not need teeth, and a further advantage is that the deep slot can store any torn edges of the plastic film without them hanging down below the lower surface of the deck.

Returning to FIG. 5, it will be understood that the load attached to the deck 10 can be readily removed from the staging 19 by inserting the forks of a fork lift truck below the deck and parallel to the bars 28.

FIG. 6 shows a side view of a truck for use with this arrangement in which the truck includes bars 32 corresponding to the bars 28. The fork lift truck can deposit the deck 10 and load 29 onto the bars 32 for transportation. When the load reaches its destination, the load may be removed along with the relevant deck 10 and then mounted on staging 19 similar to that shown in FIG. 5. In this way, the decks 10 can be returned when the load has been dismounted and the weight of the return decks is considerably less than that of standard pallets.

Whilst the arrangements of deck 10 so far described are very efficient and useful, a problem can sometimes occur in that when the decks are arranged side-by-side, for example, when being stacked during transportation, the concave sections 12 of adjacent edges 11 of adjacent decks may engage with one another. When one of the decks is to be lifted, then this engagement of the two edges of adjacent decks will prevent one deck being lifted without the other.

It is therefore desirable to provide an arrangement whereby to prevent the concave sections 12 of the edges of adjacent decks 10 from engaging with one another and such an arrangement is shown in FIGS. 8-10.

FIG. 8 shows a perspective view of a deck 10 in which the concave sections 12 of each edge includes several (three in this embodiment but other numbers can be used) raised areas 50 to prevent engagement of adjacent concave sections of adjacent decks.

The raised areas 50 are shown in FIG. 8, and FIG. 9 shows a perspective view of part of the edge of one deck between the lines 9A and 9B of FIG. 8, which shows these raised sections. FIG. 10 is a section on the line A-A of FIG. 8 and shows the exact cross-section of the raised area 50.

As is clear from FIG. 8, there are 3 raised areas 50 on each side of the deck.

In this way, it is not possible for the edges of adjacent decks to overlap and their concave sections inter-engage.

Although not shown in FIGS. 8-10, the decks may include any of the other features shown in the earlier figures, for example, studs or teeth 18 or deeper concave sections 12 of the type shown in FIG. 6.

The invention is not restricted to the details of the foregoing example. 

1. A deck for mounting a load comprising a single layer having edges, each edge of the deck being adapted so as to engage with an edge of shrink or stretch or heat wrap plastic film whereby no plastic film is wound around the underside of the deck.
 2. The deck of claim 1 in which each edge of the deck includes a channel.
 3. The deck of claim 1 in which each edge of the deck includes a concave channel.
 4. The deck of claim 1 in which each edge of the deck includes a V section channel.
 5. The deck of claim 2 in which each channel includes shaped means to engage with the plastic sheet.
 6. The deck of claim 3 in which each channel includes shaped means to engage with the plastic sheet.
 7. The deck of claim 4 in which each channel includes shaped means to engage with the plastic sheet.
 8. The deck of claim 5 in which the shaped means to engage with the plastic sheet comprises teeth shaped means.
 9. The deck of claim 2 in which each channel includes means to prevent channels of adjacent decks from engaging with one another.
 10. The deck of claim 3 in which each concave channel includes means to prevent channels of adjacent decks from engaging with one another.
 11. The deck of claim 4 in which each channel includes means to prevent channels of adjacent decks from engaging with one another.
 12. The deck of claim 5 in which each channel includes means to prevent channels of adjacent decks from engaging with one another.
 13. The deck of claim 6 in which each channel includes means to prevent channels of adjacent decks from engaging with one another.
 14. The deck of claim 9 in which the means to prevent channels of adjacent decks from engaging with one another comprises raised areas in the concave channels.
 15. The deck of claim 1 wherein the deck comprises a rectangular shape.
 16. The deck of claim 1 in which the deck comprises plastic material.
 17. The deck of claim 16 in which the deck is of injection moulded plastic.
 18. The deck of claim 1 in which the deck comprises wood. 